Washington DC Trip - Day 5 and 6 (the last day)

Home now - Robert's at school; he struggled a little to get up, but did a good job getting around and packing up his backpack for school. We did arrive back at the school about on time - close to the scheduled 1:10am - not bad for a little maintainance issue prior to taking off from Dallas. But all are home safe and sound.

This post will be about the last two days of the amazing 8th grade trip to Washington DC - (note: if you have just arrived at my blog - you can find the earlier days (Days 1, 2 and 3-4) if you scroll down further).

Day 5 - Sunday, April 18, 2010

Early wake up call, breakfast and board the bus (the standard routine of activites that allow us to get a good start to our day and on the bus by 8:15-8:30am). The day started out a little chillier than we had experienced earlier in the trip, but all seemed prepared for the day by wearing warmer clothing and bringing nicer attire for our visit to Arlington Cemetery later in the day.

First stop brought us to Iwo Jima. During the bus ride there we learned about the 6 men (5 Marines and 1 Army Corp) who were the inspiration for this memorial.

Along the base of the memorial, there is a list of all the battles/wars fought and the dates. Robert pointed out right away that there was no mention of the "Civil War" as it was noted as the "War Between the States".  The monument took 7 years to sculpt and it is based on the 2nd raising of the flag (we did learn about the story of the 2 flag raisings at Iwo Jima during the tour).

(side note...yes, I was on the trip with my son; it just took a few days for him to "allow" me to get a photo with him :) )

Next, it was time to visit the Obamas - thought we would stop by for Sunday brunch...or at least get an opportunity to learn about Layfette Park and the White House. Layfette Park is located outside the White House area and is surrounded by many historical houses, which was restored during the time the Kennedy's were in office. Now they are currently offices.

In the park there is a statue of Andrew Jackson (photo below) and another of Baron Von Stuben (who George Washington brought in to whoop the British).

As we made our way through and around Layfette Park, we finally got a chance to look at the White House and take photos. It is a very impressive looking house.

Before leaving the White House, there was ample time for photo opportunities.

First up was the group (kids & teachers)

Next...teachers, tour guide and chaperons...

And then I got "lucky" again, for here is another photo of Robert and I in front of the White House.

We left the White House and headed to Ford Theater (the theater where Abraham Lincoln was assassinated). When you enter into the theature, you first go downstairs to the museum which tells all about Lincolns life and the times he lived. When directed, we filed into the theater to hear one of the park rangers tell us the story of the night Lincoln was assassinated. It was the end of the Civil War - a joyous time - and everyone in Washington DC was celebrating nightly. The Lincolns, who enjoyed going to the theater, decided to go the night of April 14 to see the play "Our American Cousin". Ford, the theater own, heard that the President was going to attend the play, so he decided to make it a special event by dressing up the box - to make it look Presidental.

He had the partician removed (making the box in to one room), added flags, a photo of George Washington and special seats (the love seat in the box today is the original one). Well, I am sure that most of you know the outcome of that evening, so I will not bore you with what we all learned - but the presentation of that night by the ranger was very informative. He was so animated that he really drew the audience in.

We left Ford Theater and headed to the Old Post Office Pavillion for lunch before we made our way to the Holocaust Museum. Now if you haven't been to the Holocaust Museum, I (and I believe that all the kids) would recommend going if you go to Washington DC. It is very moving...very haunting...very distrubing. Upon entering the museum, you are given a passport...an identity card of someone who was there. It might be a women, it might be a man...it might be someone who was in one of the concentration camps and made it out...or might have died. Throughout your travels in the museum, you read their story and come to know the war through their experience. After 2 hours, we all met in the lobby - all of us emotionally drained. It had effected all of us and the kids in a very profound way. Tear were shed...anger was felt. The group I walked with, asked questions and raised arguements ("why did they believe Hitler", "why didn't someone stop him sooner?"). All good questions!

From there we headed out, boarding the bus where it was a quiet drive to our next stop -

 Arlington national Cemetery.

We walked all around the cemetery learning about who was buried here and how one earned their right to be buried here in this special place...there are over 330,000 honorable people buried here. As we continued to walk to the heart of the cemetary - to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

Before we went to the actual site, we got an opportunity to sit for a bit and listen to our tour guide explain what we were going to see and experience. On the other side of this auditorium was the tomb, where at 6pm (15 minutes from the time we sat at the auditorium) the changing of the guards was going to take place and then we were going to participate in a wreath laying ceremony.

First, the changing of the guards...

Twenty-four hours a day...seven days a week...through rain, snow, sleet; during night and day - the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is guarded. Each guard takes 21 steps, turns & pauses 21 seconds and then proceeds to walk the other way taking those 21 steps turning and pausing 21 seconds. When it is time for the guard to change, there is a formal ceremony which we witnessed:

Once the Changing of the Guards was complete, it was time for the wreath-laying ceremony. Four of the kids were chosen from the group, based on an essay they wrote telling what it would mean to them to lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier...Robert was one of the kids chosen (a mother couldn't have been more proud). First, the 4 kids has to be inspected by the Sargent before allowing to lay the wreath; they they followed him down to the Tomb where they were presented with the school wreath to be layed. When the wreath was placed on the stand, taps was blown.

When the ceremony was complete, the kids were lead back up the steps by the Sargent. He acknowledged their participating with a handshake and gratitude. It was a really wonderful event and, not only did our four representatives do a wonderful job laying the wreath, but the remaining 26 in the audience were very well behaved :).

We walked our way back through the cementery to where our bus was waiting for us. We boarded and made our way to dinner at Buca de Beppo (family style Italian salad, fresh warm bread, chicken parmesan, speghetti and a chocolate chip cookie for dessert). What a nice way to replunish one's self - a nice warm meal and good company...for it was an emotional afternoon between the Holocaust Museum and the wreath laying at Arlington. However, our day wasn't quite done as we ended the evening with a trip to the

Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial

Jefferson Memorial

Another great day comes to an end as we load up the bus and head to the hotel; where messages of packing up and taking a little time before "lights out" to work on some more homework. Tomorrow would be an early wake up call, earlier than the previous days, as we were going to the capital for a tour.

Day 6 - Monday, April 19, 2010...the last day of the trip

The wake up call came at 6am and everyone was instructed to be at breakfast around 6:45am with their packed suitcase. Today we were going to take a tour of the Capitol building and, due to the popularity of this tour, it was important to be there early to get a good spot in line.

Well our timing couldn't have been better as we were the first (school) group in line and only about 10 other people were in line before us. We were able to get into the building around 9am, giving us plenty of time to visit the Capital museum and the gift shop before starting the tour. The first part of the tour was a movie before going through 3 different parts of the Capitol building

Room 1 - the Crypt: this was were Washington was suppose to have been buried, but was buried on the grounds of Mount Vernon as we learn several days back.

Room 2 - The Rotunda - the core of the Capitol. Above us was the dome, below the top of the dome was a band showing over 400 years of history and below that were paintings. Around the room were statues - each state is represented throughout the Capitol by 1-2 statues...one of Californias was a statue of Ronald Reagan.

Room 3 - the Old Hall of the House or also referred to as the Echo Room

After finishing up the tour of the Capitol we walked back to the bus and boarded so that we could head off to the National Air and Space Museum, where we had lunch as well as had time to look through the museum.

This was my group I was responsible for...my son, Robert is on the left and these are his friends & roommates during the trip. It was a great group of boys!

After the Air & Space Museum, we has some time to enjoy the National Museum of Natural History before boarding the bus on last time as we headed to the airport. All of us couldn't believe that this trip came to an end so quickly. The 30 kids who had the privilege of coming to DC were wonderful - well behaved and respectful. They were full of intellegent questions throughout and just soaked up the atmosphere and the information given. Aside from the education aspect of the trip, special friendships were made as they are all part of this wonderful experience.

I am so grateful that I was able to go and be a part of it all.

From the 8th grade class, teachers and chaperons...thank you for taking interest in our trip!

Take care!

Lisa

Washington DC Trip - Days 3 and 4

I am sitting on the airplane right now...heading back from DC to California. I have been absent for the last few days as I haven't had time nor internet connection to update the blog. The weather has been fantastic - nice and warm Friday and Saturday, but cooling after that; yet the sun has been out making it perfect weather for touring! So, at this time I will continue telling you about the 8th grade trip to DC.

DAY 3 - Friday April 16, 2010

Once more we woke up at 6:30am with a wake up call and headed down to breakfast. It was time to make our way toward Washington DC, so everyone had to pack up their belongings after breakfast and get them on the bus.

We loaded up the bus and left the hotel around 9am - and headed to Richmond, the present day capitol of Virginia. We stopped and picked up another tour guide here, named Jim. He took us on a driving tour of downtown Richmond pointing out historic buildings as well as telling us all about the history of the city as it pertained to the beginning of the Civil War. We crossed over the James River and stopped on a bridge so that we could look over where the old iron foundries and flour mills use to be back in the late 1800s. 

We finally made our way to the National Museum of the Civil War Soldier and Pamplin Park. Here we learned what it would be like to have been a soldier in the Civil War - first by walking around the grounds and seeing a replica of a "winter camp" (not much fighting went on during the winter - the cold weather made it difficult to fire a gun and snow/rain made it difficult to travel).

We learned from Captain Ryan how muskets were loaded and how soldiers were disciplined...for example if they trailed behind the group during a march, holding up the group, they would be publically humiliated in front of their company - standing with a sign hung around their neck ("straggler" the sign would say) and they would have to hold bucket of heavy rocks for 24 hours or so.

After Captain Ryan educated us, we walked over to gain an understanding of what earth works were and how they were built up. Basically this was the defense system of an army to keep the other side out. It consisted of an earth wall, a trench and other structures made from logs.

Next it was time to head into the Museum of the Civil War Soldier. Here we learned what it would be like to have served in this war as each of us took on an identity of a solider who served back then; I was a boy from Wisconsin who was 16 - since you couldn't serve until you were 18, he had to lie in order to serve. Throughout the museum you listened to his story and how he felt, lived, survived...yes, I was lucky my soldier identity lived.  Between listening to the story, looking at the exhibits which included some artifacts from the war and the special effects - it moving. At times you really felt like you were in battle.

The exhibit was called "Duty Called Me Here..." and was based on a poem written by a soldier from the 34th North Carolina Infantry:

"I feel that Duty called me here, to fight for home and friends most dear,

and if I should be called to stand in bloody conflict hand to hand,

I'll trust in God my only stand, and fight until I win the day, or if it be my Master's will that I a soldier's grave must fill,

I trust that even in that event, I'll be resigned and fall content."

It was a very moving way to learn about the civil war...through the eyes of a soldier.

After lunch at a restaurant called Bottoms Up Pizza, we headed over to the White House of Confederacy (the home of Jefferson Davis - the Confederate President)

The Davis family had 6 children, whom all seemed to be problem children. It was built in 1818, but the Davis family only lived there between 1861-1865 (Civil War years). All the furniture was period pieces with over 50% original to the house.  It was a very beautiful house and the kids in the group loved the stories about the Davis children, especially because they seemed pretty spoiled and bad behaved :)

After we were done, it was time get to DC so that we could make it to the National Baseball game (which was long...like what is a hockey mom doing at a baseball game anyway; no one drops their gloves...and we got rained on, something that doesn't happen at a hockey rink) and then to the hotel.

Day 4 - April 17, 2010

As per the routine...the wake up call came at around 6:30am, breakfast at 7:15am and board the bus at 8:00am. Today we are officially touring Washington DC. First up was Newseum - the museum of News. Here were able to go back into time and relive specific events by reading headlines of news papers. The first exhibit was one on the Berlin Wall. The museum actually had some part of the wall to look at and information to read about the event.

The building was 4 stories...and beginning on the forth floor, we had the chance to read about history looking at the headlines of papers written back in the 1500s to the present. As you continue to walk around and down through the museum, another exhibit which was very powerful was the one about 9/11. One of the antenae from atop the tower was here with a back drop of all the newspapers printed around the world regarding that event/day. There was also a newsreel that you could watch, which caused some tears to fall from some of our eyes.

By the way...even the bathroom had headlines to read. This one caught my eye:

"School testing mushrooms"

From the museum, we headed to the National Archives to see the Constitution, Bill of Rights, Declaration of Independence and so on. All the kids thought it really "neat" to see the official documents and the signatures of the founding fathers/authors.

Then it was time to take a formal photo in front of the US Capitol and on to lunch at the Pentagon City Mall Food Court (there were a lot of good choices - from salads to pasta, hamburgers to sandwichs, Chinese and Sushi), before heading on to Mount Vernon

Mount Vernon - home to Mr. and Mrs. George Washington. We were able to take a tour of the house, which was very interesting and beautiful inside. I think the kids really enjoyed walking through it and seeing where George spent some of his life.

Dinner at Phillips Flagship (a HUGE buffet of anything you could ever want - especially seafood...just ask one of the teacher chaparones of the trip) and onto all the different memorials (at night and in the chill of the evening). Here are some photos from those sights.

First-The Vietnam Veterans Memorial 

Second-The Korean War Veterans Memorial

Third-The World War II Veterans Memorial

Each Memorial was special and unique. Before walking around each, Dennis, our tour guide, gave us a brief introduction to the memorial...how it was designed, what the symbolism was and so on. Then we all were able to walk around to get a feel for it. Some had lists of people who served and/or who died and some had quotes chiseled in stone. I think for me, while they all were beautiful and moving, there was something about being at the WWII memorial in the evening with all the lights and water/fountains (speaking of water, one of the kids was walking around observing and accidentally stepped into one of the "ponds" - it did lighten the mood).

The next place we went was the Lincoln Monument

Walking up the steps and seeing Mr. Lincoln sitting in front of you all light up was incredible. It was a wonderful way to end a perfect day of touring! We started the day learning about the Civil War and the part that Lincoln played and in the evening, we stood in front of him...felt the power of his presence.

At the end of day 4, reflecting on the trip so far, it is overwhelming to watch the kids take in all the information they are given, process it and ask for more. They respect the places we have been so far and will forever share the memories and bond they are establishing as they visit these places together. 

Well, it is time to put the finishing touches on this post as my battery is running low, but I will leave you with this photo of DC at night..

Thank you for visiting - come back soon as I will finish up with Day 5 and 6 very, very soon!

Lisa